In a sentimental mood
by FacelessStranger
Summary: This story mostly features Fred and Daphne...It takes place sometime fairly early in the seventies...Umm, I dunno what else to say...Well, other than of course that I don't own these characters and all that.....Read and review, please...


"Like," Shaggy said uneasily to the two women who sat in the van with him,"this is a mistake. We're totally gonna regret this. Mark my words, man."

"I know," Daphne said with mock exasperation from the front seat,"we heard you the first time, Shaggy."

"That's right," Velma agreed as she affectionately patted Shaggy on the knee," and remember, sweetie, we all voted on this fair and square. The rest of us felt that, after all this time on the road, spending the night relaxing in an actual motel instead of sleeping in the van is worth dipping into our rapidly depleting monetary resources."

"Eh," replied Shaggy,"If you say so. We're gonna need a way to add to those 'monetary resources' of our's pretty soon, though. It's crazy how little work we've been getting lately, man."

"Well", Velma said with a shrug,"these are changing times. It's the seventies now. The world is a very different place compared to how it was when we first started out. The sort of criminals we usually go up against are growing fewer and fewer. The world is a far more complex place. These days the bad guys don't all wear cheap masks so they're not so easy to identify. The fundamental good/evil dichotomy which mankind naturally falls back on when forming a paradigm to utilize when interpreting the nature of the world around them was always fundamentally spurious in nature but is currently becoming increasingly..."

"Wow," Daphne said with an elaborately theatrical yawn,"why don't you give it a rest, professor." Velma hit her playfully and Daphne started to giggle.

"Hey," Shaggy said wearily,"what's taking Fred so long, man?" As was usually the case in these situations, Fred had been sent into the hotel to arrange for a room for the night. A certain hostility towards any who seemed to belong to the counter-culture had been permeating America for quite some time now. In the past, this had proved to be a setback for Mystery, Inc. on several occasions. Velma was often dismissed by members of the public as a left-wing liberal intellectual and even Daphne's style was deemed "too mod" by many that they came into contact with. Shaggy, of course, found this to be a problem most of all. Only Fred was always able to fit everyone's standard of what a decent, clean-cut youth should look like.

"There he is now,"Daphne said as she pointed to where Fred was leaving the hotel's main office,"C'mon, guys." All three of them exited the van and carried all the meager luggage which they possessed with them. The other member of their group, a Great Dane named Scooby-Doo, had perished a few months earlier. This development had made things easier in terms of their not having to only stay at hotels that allowed animals or struggle to find the money to feed him but it had also taken much of the heart out of the group.

"Okay," Fred said,"this way, guys." Fred led the group across the parking lot and towards the room which they would all be spending the night in. He used the key to open the door and stepped inside with the other members of the group following closely behind him.

"Well," Fred asked expectantly as he gestured around at the room around them,"what do you think, gang?"

"Not bad," Shaggy replied,"like, not bad at all, man." The room was sparsely but comfortably furnished. There were two beds on either side of a night-stand, a small radio resting atop a dresser, a bathroom towards the back of the hotel room, and a small table with four chairs placed around it as well as a lamp and a phone on top of it.

"Eh," said Velma,"I suppose that it is pretty much exactly like every other room in every other corporate owned hotel all across this once-great nation of ours where we're all just sitting back and watching while the whole world turns into one cheap television commercial designed to convince the poor working class to buy more mass-produced junk that they don't want or need."

"Dang," said Daphne with a laugh,"you just don't stop, do you?"

"Oh," Velma said as she started laughing along with Daphne,"why don't you go adjust your make-up or something?"

"Umm," Fred asked awkwardly,"so it's okay, then? Well, anyway, I was talking to the manager and he said that there's this new all-night bowling alley down the road. What do you say, gang, do you want to go check it out?"

"Ugh," said Shaggy,"bowling. Bowling's for squares, man. Besides, we're, like, running out of dough pretty fast, in case you hadn't noticed."

"Also," Velma added as she wrapped her arms around Shaggy's waist,"I'm sure Shaggy and I can think of much more interesting things to do around here." Shaggy grinned broadly as Daphne rolled her eyes.

"Okay then," Daphne said as she twisted her face into an expression of mock disgust,"I'm sure you can. I, however, don't want to be around when that's happening. I'm in, Fred. Let's go check it out."

"Alright," Fred nervously said as he put an arm around Daphne's shoulders and led her out of the room,"I guess we'll see you guys later, then." Fred and Daphne held each other tight as they walked through the warm spring air. The moon shone down brightly as they made their way down the empty street. Fred talked to her about past cases that they had worked on, things which were going on in the news, and the weather. Daphne answered as briefly as possible and often just nodded agreement instead of actually answering. Fred did his best to avoid noticing.

"Two, please," Daphne said quietly as she got out her wallet and paid the sullen old man behind the counter who seemed to resent being torn away from his magazine and actually forced to deal with customers. After telling the man behind the counter their shoe sizes and receiving some bowling shoes, Daphne and Fred chose a lane. They had their choice of lanes as they were the only customers who were currently in the bowling alley.

Bowling was a way that Fred and Daphne frequently chose to pass the time. Since the first few games they had played, Daphne seemed to always be able to beat Fred at that particular game by a large margin. Tonight, however, Fred's score was s great deal higher than Daphne's. She seemed distracted and appeared to have difficulty formulating a response whenever Fred attempted to make small talk with her.

"Daphne," Fred asked as they finished their first game with his score almost twice that of Daphne's,"are you okay? You've seemed so distant all evening."

"Fred," Daphne said with a sigh that sent shivers down Fred's spine,"we have to talk. It's about my last phone call home. Do you remember Gregory Winthrop?"

"Your old boyfriend. Of course I do," Fred said with a look in his eyes that said that he didn't like where this conversation was going.

"Yes," Daphne said as she brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes,"well, he's back from Vietnam. He's asked me to marry me and that I would." All the color immediately disappeared from Fred's face at that point.

"Fred," Daphne continued frantically,"I love you. I always will. You know that. It's just that...Oh, I don't know. I just don't see this relationship going anywhere. I think that it's time for us both to move on." Fred simply continued to stand there speechless.

"C'mon," Daphne said as she took his arm,"it's getting late. Let's walk back."

"No," Fred mumbled as he shook himself free from her grip,"you go on ahead. I think I'll play another game. I need some time to think." Daphne stood for a moment staring sadly into Fred's eyes without saying anything

"Okay," Daphne whispered as she walked away. A few minutes after she left, Fred paid the man behind the counter for another game and went back to his lane. On his first turn, Fred knocked down all of the pins except the seventh one and the tenth one.

"'Alright," Fred said to himself,"a seven-ten split. The toughest split in bowling. Okay, here I go, about to attempt the impossible." He walked over to the ball retrieval to pick up a new ball for his second turn in the frame. He suddenly stopped and froze in place.

"Yeah," Fred thought," and no one's here to see it. No one will know if I make this shot and no one would care if they did. Why should they? Whether or not I make this shot doesn't matter. I'm no genius like Velma but I can see that this is "symbolic" or whatever for what the rest of my life will be like. I'll be all alone and nothing I do will make any difference. Daphne's the only thing that ever made sense in my life. Dang it!! I just can't imagine going on without her." Fred slowly finished his game alone as the easy-listening music which was being piped in on a series of loudspeakers scattered all throughout the bowling alley provided a twisted reflection of the grim thoughts echoing around inside his skull.

The next day Daphne woke shortly before dawn to see Fred sitting at the table in the room reading the copy of the bible that the hotel had left in the room. He had apparently already finished getting dressed but that wasn't odd because he was usually the first one up.

"Mmmm, good morning," Daphne quietly said in a sleepy voice.

"Yes," Fred mumbled as he set down the bible,"hello. Hello."

"Hey," Daphne asked with concern as she started to seem slightly more awake," how're you holding up, Fred?"

"I'm fine," Fred said,"I'm fine. Hey, why don't we grab a bite to eat? I think that the little diner we saw next to the hotel is open."

"Sounds good," agreed Daphne,"just let me get dressed." Daphne then lifted her nightgown over her head, tossed it into the corner, climbed out of bed, and walked over to her suitcase to get some clothes to wear. Fred couldn't help averting his eyes and blushing.

As he always did when something like this happened, Fred felt very uncomfortable. He never mentioned it because he didn't want to be looked down on but something like this, as well as many other types of things that the group he now associated with were prone to do, left him feeling extremely unsettled. The odd thing was that Fred was thought of as a wild rebel with all sorts of dangerously subversive liberal ideas in the small southern town where he had grown up. When he grew older and went out into the world, Fred soon discovered that he was considered old-fashioned and overly conservative by members of the bohemian community. This discovery left Fred feeling as though he were some sort of misfit. He often wondered if there were any place where he would truly belong. The only time he had ever felt as though he were truly at peace was the time he had spent with Daphne.

Fred found himself gazing over at the other bed where Shaggy and Velma still slept peacefully. Even though he knew they would have thought nothing of it, Fred found he was glad that they both seemed to be sleeping so soundly that it appeared to be unlikely that they would wake up and see Daphne getting dressed. A moment later, Fred saw out of the corner of his eye that Daphne had all of her clothes on.

"Okay," Daphne said," let's go." She stepped out of the door and Fred quickly followed after her. He pulled the door shut behind him as gently as he could so as to avoid waking Shaggy and Velma. Neither Fred or Daphne said a word during the walk to the diner.

It only took them a few minutes to reach the diner. Fred and Daphne seated themselves at one of the diner's few booths. An old woman came out to take their orders a moment later and proceeded to disappear back into the kitchen once she had done so.

"Fred," Daphne said seriously,"I really think that we need to talk about what I told you last night about me marrying Gregory and all."

"I don't think we need to talk about that, Daphne," Fred replied,"because that's not going to happen. You mean the world to me and I'm not ready to give up that easily. Fine, I'd be all for taking this relationship to the next level. Absolutely. There's nothing I'd like more. I'd get a steady job. I'd marry you. Anything, really, you name it. Okay, so I don't have the money to buy a big fancy ring right now. This'll have to do until then. It's a napkin ring. I found it with the leftovers of some food that Shaggy and Velma ordered." Fred took it out of his pocket and held it up as though it were the fanciest diamond ring imaginable.

"Aw," said Daphne as tears began to form in her eyes," you win, Fred. You win." She gave him a quick kiss that was still full of passion despite its brevity and then took both of his hands in hers as she began staring deep into his eyes. Fred was careful to note every detail of this moment so that he could later replay it in his mind whenever times were tough and he found life growing difficult. Outside, the sun was starting to rise. Endless rays of purple, red, and gold spread out across the heavens to signify that a new day was dawning.


End file.
